Outfoxed: 10 Years Later

You may think that Fox’s bias has always been common knowledge but it was the 2004 documentary Outfoxed that brought it front and center and put a stake through the heart of Fox’s “fair and balanced” mantra. As one of the researchers for the film, I am so proud to have been part of that effort.

In Brave New Films’ 10th anniversary video, Outfoxed producer Robert Greenwald says, “For 25 years, I worked in commercial film and television but I never had the experience that I had with Outfoxed where you make a film and people come up to you and they say, ‘Thank you.’”

I, too, have had people come up to me and thank me for the film. To them, I say, “You are welcome but there is more work to do.” I would not still be blogging about Fox News if I thought our mission has been fully accomplished.

The sad truth is that Fox is still able to drive political discourse and media narratives. Even sadder, Democrats rarely seem able to effectively thwart its influence. It’s hard to believe we’d have the Benghazi Select Committee were it not for Fox News. In fact, Fox even boasted about its role in making it happen. And let’s not forget that it was Fox’s relentless hyping of DonaldTrump'sbirtherism that prompted our president to get a waiver for the release of his long-form birth certificate and to fly his personal attorney to Hawaii to pick it up. And now we have Fox News clamoring forimpeachment.

So, it’s great to pause and reflect on how well Outfoxed did its job of exposing just what kind of operation Fox News is. But it's up to all of us now to do something about it.